I recently gave up my US BlackBerry service due to T-Mobile charging me for data roaming even though I had their "Unlimited" international plan and the WAP APN disabled, and had pretty much decided on an Android phone to use with my Afghan SIM card due to my exclusive usage of Gmail. I determined that Expansys was going to be my best option to get an unlocked, unbranded device shipped out here to my APO address. I debated between the Motorola XT720, the HTC Desire, and the Legend, and decided on the Legend based on its build similarity to the original iPhone; which I have always been impressed with. Unfortunately, it took a very long time to get here due to issues at the mail transit point for my base, but now that I have it in my hands, I'm even more blown away with just how nice this handset actually is.

I have already dabbled in the Android world at various times with a T-Mobile myTouch 3G and a Samsung i7500 Galaxy, so I knew what I was getting into with the OS, but this is my first foray into Sense. I absolutely love it. Android with Sense takes all the great things I love about the iOS UI and takes them to the next level (i.e., placing widgets and icons anywhere on the screen).

The build quality is amazing. It is a solid piece of aluminum, the 3.5" headset jack is shaped normally, the battery and SIM card are easy to get to, and the buttons are well placed and sturdy. In my opinion, it's built the way the iPhone 2G should have been. Despite the curve at the bottom where the battery door is located, the device is very pocket-able, and it feels great in the hand. The touchscreen is just as responsive as any of my iPhones, there is no lag within Sense, the spell check is very accurate, and it doesn't smudge anywhere near as much as any of my previous iPhones (2G, 3G, 3GS) or my current iPad 3G. The optical trackpad works as expected, though it is not used for much except the camera.

As there is no 3G at all in Afghanistan, battery life has been decent so far on WiFi and GPRS (once it gets activated by AWCC). I don't have any third-party data apps installed other than Oanda Currency Converter, so the only things consuming data are the Google apps (push) and Facebook (not push).

The only major issue that I've had so far is with upgrading. The phone came with a fairly early build of 2.1, and I knew there were newer official versions available, so I set about trying to get it upgraded (mainly for multi-touch). This proved to be a serious challenge. Despite my device being unbranded, no updates showed available in the OTA update checker, so I dug through the Internet to find one I could do from a PC. I eventually found it at shipped-roms.com, got it downloaded, but the device just wouldn't accept it on the grounds that it was not correctly branded. As a result, I had to go through the steps to create a Goldcard from the 2GB SD that came with the device. Although it was tedious, I got through it and was finally able to update. My Legend is much faster now, and I should be tied over until the official 2.2 build is released.

For anyone that doesn't live in the US (or doesn't care about 3G) and wants a very solid, great-performing Android phone, this is definitely it.

TBOLTRAM

10-08-2010 08:04 PM

So T-Mobile lied to you about the international plan? Curious.

dc/dc

10-09-2010 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TBOLTRAM
(Post 1662990)

So T-Mobile lied to you about the international plan? Curious.

No, the guy just didn't know how BIS works. Opening or sending an attachment in e-mail or BBM is part of BIS, not the Internet. He was just looking for an excuse not to credit me. To be honest, I realized that the only real reason I had the BlackBerry was for BBM, but pretty much everybody I BBM'ed with on a regular basis also had GTalk, so this just made more fiscal sense.

NJBlackBerry

10-09-2010 08:27 AM

Ordered one yesterday. Love the Vibrant but the limited battery life is a killer. Starting to see more application crashes on it also.

dc/dc

10-09-2010 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663073)

Ordered one yesterday. Love the Vibrant but the limited battery life is a killer. Starting to see more application crashes on it also.

Yeah, I can definitely understand how that would be with all the gee-whiz stuff in the Vibrant (animated homescreens etc.)... I tweaked my Facebook settings yesterday to only refresh every hour (everything else is still on push), and even with WiFi on all day (15 minute disconnect), GSM service off and on, and some music listening, I still had 68% by the time I went to bed at 9:30.

NJBlackBerry

10-10-2010 07:29 AM

I turned off all animations.
I turned off Facebook and Twitter (kind of defeats the purpose)
Turned off Wifi and BT when not in use (and during the day).
No music listening.

Still used 70% of the battery with no effort in about 6 hours.

dc/dc

10-10-2010 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663318)

I turned off all animations.
I turned off Facebook and Twitter (kind of defeats the purpose)
Turned off Wifi and BT when not in use (and during the day).
No music listening.

Still used 70% of the battery with no effort in about 6 hours.

Wow! That's worse than any iPhone I've ever used (which was my former litmus for horrible battery life)! I can't blame you for taking it back.

I wonder if battery life is worse in branded devices with carrier bloatware than with unbranded devices?

NJBlackBerry

10-11-2010 06:39 AM

Bloatware which you can't remove. And these aren't shortcuts.. I'd like to delete at least 10-20 apps off this thing that I don't need!

Oh well. Windows Phone 7 launch is today. See how that is. Since my expectations are so low, it may actually surprise me.

dc/dc

10-11-2010 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663592)

Bloatware which you can't remove. And these aren't shortcuts.. I'd like to delete at least 10-20 apps off this thing that I don't need!

Oh well. Windows Phone 7 launch is today. See how that is. Since my expectations are so low, it may actually surprise me.

Exactly. It's stupid. You can remove them if you root, but honestly, you shouldn't have to. Even in my phone there is some HTC software (part of Sense) that I don't use or want, but it's so ingrained that it can't be removed without FUBARing the phone. Thankfully though, it's only like 5 apps and it isn't killing me.

In the case of the Vibrant, I would think you'd be able to run a ROM from an OEM i9000 Galaxy S, which should be able to mitigate a lot of issues.

NJBlackBerry

10-11-2010 07:29 AM

I am trying to not mod the Vibrant as we are making the decision whether to support them. Rooting it would kind of defeat the purpose of testing an out of the box device.

dc/dc

10-11-2010 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663606)

I am trying to not mod the Vibrant as we are making the decision whether to support them. Rooting it would kind of defeat the purpose of testing an out of the box device.

Yeah, I can understand that... If you were using it for personal use though, I'd definitely try an OEM, unrooted i9000 ROM.

NJBlackBerry

10-11-2010 08:46 AM

And there are a ton of them out there...

dc/dc

10-11-2010 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663617)

And there are a ton of them out there...

Seems you're right... I was expecting that they'd be as easy to find as HTC ROMs. :(

NJBlackBerry

10-11-2010 11:32 PM

Hands on a couple of Windows Phone 7 devices. Meh...

dc/dc

10-11-2010 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry
(Post 1663873)

Hands on a couple of Windows Phone 7 devices. Meh...

I have no intention of touching WP7.

dc/dc

10-16-2010 04:51 AM

Well, I couldn't wait any longer for 2.2, so I rooted and went to CyanogenMod... So nice to be able to secure my phone now...

wabbit

10-16-2010 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc/dc
(Post 1665151)

Well, I couldn't wait any longer for 2.2, so I rooted and went to CyanogenMod... So nice to be able to secure my phone now...

the loader to root is actually a security risk. it can mount the phone and you can with dev tools just pull any file you want off the phone to the desktop.

dc/dc

10-16-2010 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wabbit
(Post 1665309)

the loader to root is actually a security risk. it can mount the phone and you can with dev tools just pull any file you want off the phone to the desktop.

Thanks, I'm aware of that. I'm not a n00b when it comes to UNIX/LINUX OSes.

My device is now better secured when it is locked, and it is never plugged into any computer but mine, so there is little risk of anyone accessing my files.